Joining the dots between foodbanks and faith sharing

The tide is rising. Everywhere I speak at the moment I encounter stories that reinforce the statistics that the church is growing. And whilst big pieces of research like The Quiet Revival have announced what is happening, the Evangelical Alliance have been listening to how it is happening.

One of the ways we do this is by commissioning pieces of research, the latest of which is called Finding Jesus. We asked almost 300 adults who had become Christians as adults in the last five years about their story of meeting Jesus and the key factors in their journey. Some of the themes were fascinating. And one of the most significant questions we asked was ​‘What prompted you to begin exploring the Christian faith?’ And here is what we found:

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The most common reason why people begin their journey of exploration is needing help with life. Our participants cited coming to toddler groups, football projects, debt relief initiatives and other ministries that meet people’s human need for community and connection. If you are part of something like this, thank you and may you know that you are playing a valuable and Christlike role, but also helping many move forward on their journey of faith.

But, there is significant work for us to be done as a church. Colossians 4:5 urges us to make the most of every opportunity. The stories and statistics are telling us that this is a huge opportunity for us and yet we could be making more of it. Earlier this year we surveyed our member churches and over 300 churches responded. One of the questions we asked was ​‘How would you describe the approach to compassion ministries and faith sharing in your church?’

Here are the results:

Whilst 25% of churches say they have a clear, cohesive strategy that integrates their social action and evangelism, half say it could be improved and a quarter say there is significant disconnection. As we seek to play our part in being good news people and making the most of the missional moment we are in, I want to urge us all to invest time, thought, creativity, resources and effort in joining the dots between these two vital aspects of church life and mission. My conviction is that if we did, hundreds of thousands more people across the UK would become Christians.

What would it look like if everyone who accessed a foodbank, came to a toddler group or bought a latte at a community café was invited to take the next step? Could each person who walked through the doors be invited to church on Sunday or encouraged to come to Alpha, Christianity Explored or a discovery Bible study? Not everyone would say yes, but the evidence suggests that many would.

So what practically might we do to increase cohesion in this area. Here are three ideas to get the ball rolling:

1. Signpost and invite

In 2020, The Message Trust began a drop-in grocery in the community where they are based. People paid a small membership fee and came each day to get the food they needed. But each one was also invited to Alpha at the checkout. So many attended the course that a new church has started there with over 200 now attending each week. Put flyers in people’s hands, posters on the walls and invitations on our lips.

2. Train your volunteers and deploy your best inviters

As I read through the responses of the participants of the Finding Jesus study, new Christians repeatedly talk about the personal connection they made with people at the church who showed an interest in them, encouraged them to come to church and shared their story of faith. What might it look like in your setting if every helper had a ready and intentional mindset to help people encounter Jesus? Could we encourage our best relational connectors to volunteer in these ministries because of their strategic importance?

3. Think strategically about the journey

Spend some time mapping out how someone who needs help with life finds out about what your church provides to help them. Then consider what happens what the find when they arrive at that service or project. Where and how are you inviting them next? Where will they build relationships? How will they hear the good news? This journey may need refining over time, but the opportunity in front of us demands we think well about how we help people best and steward our resources well.

The church in the UK provides billions of pounds of social value to communities everywhere. We evangelicals are characterised and defined, in part, by our compassion and activity. But we are also gospel people, who believe that the most important decision anyone can ever make is to choose to follow Jesus. The times in which we live and the current pathways to faith demand that we join up our activism and evangelism. Let us love in deed and word. May we join the dots between action and invitation as we together make Jesus known.